and being of your house, Critias, he may be
expected to have this.

He is as fair and good within, as he is without, replied Critias.

Then, before we see his body, should we not ask him to show us his soul,
naked and undisguised? he is just of an age at which he will like to
talk.

That he will, said Critias, and I can tell you that he is a philosopher
already, and also a considerable poet, not in his own opinion only, but
in that of others.

That, my dear Critias, I replied, is a distinction which has long been
in your family, and is inherited by you from Solon. But why do you not
call him, and show him to us? for even if he were younger than he is,
there could be no impropriety in his talking to us in the presence of
you, who are his guardian and cousin.

Very well, he said; then I will call him; and turning to the attendant,
he said, Call Charmides, and tell him that I want him to come and see
a physician about the illness of which he spoke to me the day before
yesterday. Then again addressing me, he added: He has been complaining
lately of having a headache when he rises in the morning: now why should
you not make him believe that you know a cure for the headache?

Why not, I said; but will he come?

He will be sure to come, he replied.

He came as he was bidden, and sat down between Critias and me. Great
amusement was occasioned by every one pushing with might and main at his
neighbour in order to make a place for him next to themselves, until at
the two ends of the row one had to get up and the other was rolled over
sideways. Now I, my friend, was beginning to feel awkward; my former
bold belief in my powers of conversing with him had vanished. And when
Critias told him that I was the person who had the cure, he looked at me
in such an indescribable manner, and was just going to ask a question.
And at that moment all the people in the palaestra crowded about us,
and, O rare! I caught a sight of the inwards of his garment, and took
the flame. Then I could no longer contain myself. I thought how well
Cydias understood the nature of love, when, in speaking of a fair youth,
he warns some one 'not to bring the fawn in the sight of the lion to
be devoured by him,' for I felt that I had been overcome by a sort of
wild-beast appetite. But I controlled myself, and when he asked me if
I knew the cure of the headache, I answered, but with an effort, that I
did know.

And what is it? he said.

I replied that it